Cost of learning

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

"Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that."

 The Red Queen, in Through the Looking Glass

The Salt Lake City School District finds itself in much the same predicament as Alice, who, in the Lewis Carroll classic, runs "very fast for a long time" but remains in the same spot.

The district received a 2 percent funding increase this year from the Legislature, whose members were enthusiastic about what they touted as the largest boost in education funding in many years. But that meager increase does not allow the public schools in the capital city to continue to provide current service to children without a tax increase.

What legislators were so proud to call a funding increase does little in most districts but pay for necessary cost increases in retirement benefits for school employees.

District officials are asking the district school board to consider raising property taxes so they can continue to offer the academic programs that are currently available. The $3.6 million that would be generated from the proposed tax hike would cover $1.9 million to support current academic programs, $1.2 million for state retirement and cost-of-living increases for employees and $450,000 to cover federal budget cutbacks.

The district's proposal, which the board should approve unless somebody can come up with a better way to raise the millions needed, would have homeowners paying $12.65 more annually per $100,000 of home valuation, according to Janet Roberts, district business administrator.

The median price of a single-family home in Salt Lake City ranges from $139,000 to $393,000, depending on location, according to 2013's first quarter figures provided by Urban Utah Homes and Estates, a real estate company. So the tax increase would range from about $18 to $43 or more, depending on the value of a home. That's not insignificant for most homeowners, but maintaining the current level of education is worth it.

Really, the district has little recourse. Utah's predominantly Republican Legislature enjoys pointing to its ideological aversion to tax increases, even though surveys show Utahns are willing to pay more to improve the work being done on a shoestring in their neighborhood schools.

So legislators push responsibility for funding onto districts like Salt Lake's, then change laws to take that money and send it to faster-growing districts elsewhere. Utahns pay higher taxes, but the Legislature's hands are clean.

Share This Article

ARTICLE PHOTO GALLERY

USER COMMENTS

Reader comments on sltrib.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Salt Lake Tribune. We will delete comments containing obscenities, personal attacks and inappropriate or offensive remarks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. If you see an objectionable comment, please alert us by clicking the arrow on the upper right side of the comment and selecting "Flag comment as inappropriate". If you've recently registered with Disqus or aren't seeing your comments immediately, you may need to verify your email address. To do so, visit disqus.com/account. See more about comments here.